Aviation is supposed to be a very “male dominated” industry. At varying times Airspeed’s pilot workforce has enjoyed varying levels of female participation but women have played an important part in our pilot workforce since March 2012 when Georgie Paterson joined us as a junior Charter pilot. Georgie rose through the ranks to become our most important Supervisory pilot for new trainees and since then the number of women in key roles has steadily increased to the point where (as it happens) all our Scone pilot body and 66% of our total pilot workforce is female.

We aren’t claiming to be highly advanced and there is no explicit company policy in place making this happen. We see gender as irrellevant to employability and role, and simply employ the best candidate for the job.

Gender stereotypes? Our senior pilots are all women and our Accounts Payable/receivable clerk is a bloke.

I am secretly proud of the women that work for us now and those that have worked for us in the past. I am secretly thrilled that they have learnt so much in their time with us that they have gone on to careers in Jetstar, Qantaslink and Aeromedical. It it a huge credit to each of the four of them that they were recruited on an even playing field in the 21st century and have gone on to win 21st-Century jobs alongside their 21st-century male Airspeed Aviation colleagues.

Airspeed Aviation takes a slightly different tack on your tackle: It doesn’t matter who you are. We are committed to recruiting the best pilots and staff we possibly can to ensure the safety and comfort of our passengers, and we’re (not-so-secretly) pleased with the success that has delivered to us and to our team members – past, present and future.